2001 Women's College Cup

Posted: Dec 09, 2001

Dec. 7, 2001

SANTA CLARA

Head Coach Jerry Smith
"First off, I would like to congratulate Florida on a great match."

"Like Virginia last week, we got up early and Florida came back just like Virginia did last week. It was a great effort by both teams."

"I am very proud of my team. This team has a toughness about it. Maybe that is our deal, we have to be in tight games."

"We are very excited and I am very proud of this team."

"This is new territory for us. We will be focus. We came here to win two games and we are going to give it our best shot."

"Veronica Zepeda was the difference. She was awesome. It almost cost us taking her out at the end, but when we put her back in, we won the game."

"These games (College Cup) are pressure pack. It is hard to play well in the semi-finals and finals. I thought our team did a good job of settling down early and played well. I am really proud of the way our team played today."

Danielle Slaton
(game)
"The first 15 minutes of a game in the Final Four is kind of chaotic. It took us a little while to settle down. Once we settled down, it was okay."

(Aly Wagner passing skill)
"I've played with Aly for 10 years now. She makes all the other players look so good. She spends so much time working on her talent. I've never seen anybody work as hard as she does."

(defending Wambach)
"There is no stopping a player like Abby Wambach in the air. My goal was to pressure her so she couldn't get clean touches on the ball."

Leslie Osborne
(goal on Wagner pass)
"The whole season I've lined up at the back post and she puts the ball right there. We have scored a lot of goals like that. She can just put the ball on the spot. All I do is run."

Aly Wagner
(on space allowed her in first half)
"Their backs tend to drop off a little. In a big game, you have more time than you think and you don't want to panic. There were times I was able to settle the ball and connect with my teammates."

(lack of space in second half)
"I noticed there was a girl tracking me around the field. But there are 10 other great players on the field."

FLORIDA

Head Coach Becky Burleigh
"First off, we are very disappointing with the loss, but I am very proud of our players never giving up tonight and coming back like they did."

"Getting those two goals to tie it up really showed a lot about our team."

(on the pace of the game)
"I thought the first 15 minutes in were really back and forth, and after that Santa Clara really dominated the rest of the first half."

"Aly Wagner touched the ball too much in the first half. I thought we did a better job of guarding her in the second."

"We never really gave up. Our team really dug in even deeper after Santa Clara went up 2-0, and going into overtime we thought it was ours to win."

Abby Wambach
(lack of shots)
"When you get into the College Cup, you're not going to get a lot of looks at the goal. It's hard to go through the season when you can get a lot of touches and control the game, then you come here and have to go back and forth."

(comeback)
"We believed in ourselves. We may not be the most talented squad in the College Cup, but what matters is we put it all on the line. That's the type of team this was. It's not the storybook ending I expected, but I couldn't be more proud of this team."

Jordan Kellgren
(OT goal)
"The girl was standing just outside the box and took the shot. It hit the crossbar and bounced down. The girl was standing there wide open and I was waiting for her to take the shot. She did."